Tuesday Apr 29, 2014

I realize it's been some time since my last post - updating blogs in short, stream-of-consciousness bursts doesn't always come naturally. However I do have a number of somewhat unrelated items that I want to highlight.

First off, I'm very pleased that Oracle Education & Research will be a founding sponsor of the upcoming "This Week" @ Inside Higher Ed weekly audio newscast. This will be in many respects very much like a "meet the press" weekly program that will touch on the timely and relevant topics in education technology, along with the policies, funding, and cultural and political dynamics and issues that are prevalent in our industry. Casey Green is spearheading this effort with Inside Higher Ed, and we are extremely pleased to sponsor what we believe will be a strong contributor to the dialog that needs to take place as our industry undergoes significant change and transformation. As are part of our participate in the "This Week" series, we will be engaging in quarterly podcasts with Casey to talk about Oracle's position in the industry and where we see our industry solutions playing a role in enabling some of the transformation I just referenced. The first of these will take place on May 7, 9am PT, "Pathways to Student Success" webinar. Register for this webinar where my colleague, Mark Armstrong, and I discuss Oracle's latest investment for Student Success with moderator, Casey Green. Lastly, here's where you can go to get more subscriber information about This Week" @ Inside Higher Ed weekly audio newscast.

In other developments, the 2014 Tambellini Report (created and distributed by Tambellini Group, LLC) was released this week (week of April 28) and shows extremely strong results for Oracle in the Student Information Systems market, with nearly three times the selections of any other competitor. This validates a couple of trends I've commented on previously: that we are entering a era where the business systems of higher education implemented 10+ years ago are in need of a refresh, and the staying power of niche vendors who lack the breadth and depth of a multi-industry, multi national company like Oracle are being severely challenged.

Finally I wanted to highlight a number of the topics and agenda themes that we'll be discussing at our upcoming summer Industry Strategy Council meeting in Washington DC: Cyber Security in Higher Education, Student Success, Information Discovery in Higher Education, and SaaS business applications for Higher Education. We'll be joined by our Chief Security Officer Mary Ann Davidson, Jamie Studley from DoED, and several members of congress from committees focused on higher education policy. We are welcoming several new members to the council including Vanderbilt University, Seneca College, and the University of Chicago. We're looking forward to a content-rich two-days in downtown DC! Stay tuned where I'll share some of these outcomes in my next blog.

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Comments, news, updates and perspectives from Oracle's global vice president of the education and research industry--which includes higher education, research, and primary/secondary education (K-12) organizations worldwide.